Current market trends indicate that crawler operators are using their machines for more finish grading work than has historically been done. Thus the need for dozers that can competently grade is growing. To support this trend, manufacturers continue to improve the machines ability to perform this work to the operators expectations.
Key contributors of the dozers finish grading capability include such factors as machine balance, weight distribution, track length on ground, machine rigidity, and the location of the blade relative to the track. Locating the blade closer to the tracks increases the machine stability, and makes the machine easier to operate. The ability to minimize this distance is limited on dozers that have the ability to angle their blade because the blade must have adequate clearance to the tracks in all positions.
The blade distance ratio is commonly used as an indicator of a dozers grading ability. The blade distance ratio is determined by dividing the distance from the rear track roller to the blade (RTBD) by the effective track length on ground (ETL), i.e. Blade Distance Ratio=RTBD/ETL.